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Iain Hunter: Rainbow campers mean no harm

Members of the human species have had the urge to migrate ever since in Africa he stood on two legs and she considered what might be over the next hill.

Members of the human species have had the urge to migrate ever since in Africa he stood on two legs and she considered what might be over the next hill.

Today, some folks with traces of the same DNA have an urge to migrate for a month or so to Raft Cove on our Island to squat and consider whatever occurs to them.

Groups of misfits and mystics, throughout history, have wandered restlessly over the globe. Gypsies still are unwanted anywhere. Other types have settled at the edge of deserts, such as the Sahara, where dervishes are to be found still, and the Mohave in California, the first home of hippies.

Raft Cove is the second choice for what’s called the World/Global Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes. Rainbow websites reveal that Meadow Creek, near Nelson, was the preferred gathering place until the disorganized organizers realized that the place was full of forest-fire smoke and surrounded by angry people who wanted them to move on.

There are angry people around Raft Cove, too, who are afraid the hordes will destroy that pristine gem of nature, a provincial park, with their pit latrines and litter. As I write this, there are reports that the salal is being uprooted on the forest edge and the ferns trampled along the trail leading to the beach, and that vehicles loaded with stuff are negotiating the logging roads.

By the time this is published, authorities might have attempted to close the park or limit access and to enforce the no-fire ban reportedly being disregarded.

Let’s hope confrontations won’t have led to violence.

Those attending this so-called World/Global gathering aren’t likely to be deterred by rules laid down by the authorities set up by mainstream society, which they call Babylon. They think that they’re in harmony with the planet itself and that the rest of us are off-key.

In the U.S., where similar gatherings without global status have taken place on National Forest land since 1972, attempts to control, regulate or otherwise “harass” participants have been ruled unconstitutional by the courts.

Sometimes a sense of order among the “members” is imposed by volunteer enforcers, and gathering sites are left clean and safe.

Sometimes there are volunteers with medical, dietary, herbal and massage skills to offer.

At other times there has been destruction, violence and, in 2011 in Washington state, a death. And Babylon’s media have always focused on the boozing, drug-taking and nudity of some participants.

Who are these members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light? They don’t sound like members of the kind of families that Premier Christy Clark likes to talk about.

They might be from anywhere, believe in anything, usually things like peace, harmony, freedom, community — all that ’60s stuff.

To be a family member, all they need is love.

At gatherings they share the necessities, like food and water, and trade the luxuries, like wooden carvings, beads and watches, for time doesn’t matter much, either.

All their labour is voluntary, the Magic Hat is passed for collections to be used for shared items. A Snickers bar, apparently, is a medium of exchange.

When they’re not contemplating or gazing into space, they talk in circles, passing a talking stick or feather, and listen, politely, until the speaker has finished. They talk of human rights and natural rights, of helping others in need.

They probably go on about grassy knolls, missing presidential birth certificates and climate engineering. Occasionally, I’m told, they punctuate their busy day with “Om.”

Well, I’m a Babylonian, and I would find this all quite boring.

But I can’t see what threat these people present to my way of life or values, some of which they seem to share.

These are not Rainbow warriors. They’re not Goths, Vandals or other barbarian invaders.

They’re not even like our distant ancestors who followed coastlines, crossed plains and climbed mountains in search of something or to escape something.

They’re not like the explorers of jungles, rivers, mountains and space, driven by imagination and curiosity.

They mean the world no harm. If only there weren’t so many of them in the wrong place for so long.